Lawrence of Arabia. It's a name that conjures up an image of a heroic
Englishman in white silk Arab robes charging on a war camel across the sands of
Arabia.

But what happened to Lawrence after Arabia?

Lawrence's life after
his legendary exploits in the desert is stranger than anything portrayed in the
famous film. He was one of the greatest celebrities of the age, yet he
changed his name, rejoined the military at the lowest rank and sought anonymity
in the distant corners of the British Empire. What could have happened out
in the Arabian desert that would cause a man who had achieved such fame to despise the
very myth he had created?

This new play sets
out to discover the truth beneath the legend.

THE MAN IN THE DESERT was a semi-finalist for the 2007 Eugene O'Neill
Playwrights Conference, America's most prestigious competition for new
unpublished plays, chosen out of 800 entries.

Theatre In The Park in Raleigh, North Carolina
presented
THE MAN IN THE DESERT in 2007.

Theatre
In The Park is almost 60 years old and has an annual audience of 40,000 and is
North Carolina's largest regional theatre.
The play starred Ira David Wood
as T. E. Lawrence. He is an award-winning actor who has appeared in movies
with Christopher Walken, Cliff Robertson and Natalie Wood.He has frequently performed internationally and at the Kennedy Center,
and is also the father of Evan Rachel Wood, the young star of the movie
"Thirteen" (with Holly Hunter), "The Upside of Anger" (with
Kevin Costner) and many others. Co-star
Adam Twiss has an MFA from the Trinity Rep Theatre where he was a winner of the
Kavanaugh for acting.

The play was directed by Michael Lilly, an award-winning Los
Angeles director whose productions have won Garland Awards for Best New Play,
Entertainment Today's Best Production Awards, and "Critic's Picks" in
both the Los Angeles Times and the LA Weekly.

This is a particularly personal story for the playwright as
his father served with Lawrence in the Royal Air Force in the last years of
Lawrence's life, although Lawrence called himself "Aircraftman Shaw"
at that time - a name he had taken from his friend and social activist George
Bernard Shaw. The playwright heard many stories about the former
"Lawrence of Arabia" from his father, and this inspired a lifelong
interest in the man and the myth.

"This is an important piece of work. The world will discover this
play."

"A powerful
prescient dramatization of Arabia in the 1930's and its resonance to the
current situation."

"Colley has a fine feel for dramatic confrontation and sparring
dialogue... Lawrence's complexities are especially subtle and nuanced. Colley makes the play relevant through frightening parallels to today's Iraq."

"I loved THE MAN IN THE DESERT and haven't stopped thinking about it
and talking about it."

"Amazing! A truly relevant and utterly brilliant piece of history and art."

"I was blown away!What an
amazing show, with truly stellar and incredible performances! A moving,
entertaining and relevant play!"

"As soon as the show ended I wanted to see it again right away."

"A terrific
play. The characters are fully drawn and the tension is really
palpable... full of haunting, beautiful, intensely moving
character interplay."

"The image of the desert resonated throughout the
play. The characters are surrounded by it, penetrated by it, haunted by it...
it is another character. The looming Bedouin on the horizon - I could not
forget them from start to finish. They are both sinister and beloved.Beautiful and dark."

Charlotte Shaw (the wife of George Bernard Shaw): "There's some Bedouin out there."

Haunted by visions during bouts of malaria.

A ghost from the past.

Trust.

Trying to get Lawrence to end his self-imposed exile.

Charlotte Shaw: "How can you remain silent when you see what's happening in the
east right now?"

"Crasher" is an old Arabia hand who despises Lawrence and the
myth he created for taking credit for the fighting Crasher and his
mates did.

"... how the
British army had a million men in Arabia and yet one man, history now
tells us, did it all on his bleeding lonesome."

Aircraftman Walden tries to hold Crasher back...

...and pays the price.

Preparing for trouble.

A memory of Price Faisal and their fight for Arab independence.

Shots from the desert!

He knows the truth about Lawrence...

Are they going to attack?

"Tell them Lawrence gives his word... "

Memories of betrayal.

Two old warriors and a lost dream.

TRIANGLE
THEATER REVIEW

"The
TRIANGLE THEATER REVIEW provides more coverage of live theater in the
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of
North Carolina than all of the other local
news media combined."

Review by Robert W. McDowell

Peter
Colley's intriguing new biographical drama THE MAN IN THE DESERT is an
eye-opening exploration of a private chapter of the very public life
of Lawrence of Arabia -- a life so public, in fact, that World War I hero T. E.
Lawrence left the British Army, fled his fame, and enlisted in the
Royal Air Force under the pseudonym of Aircraftman Second Class Ned Shaw.THE MAN IN THE DESERT catches up with Lawrence/Shaw in the early 1930s as
he arrives at the remote RAF base in Basrah, Iraq.

Ira David Wood gives a passionate and completely
compelling performance in the title role of a reluctant hero, with some painful
monkeys on his back, whose latest desperate attempt at achieving anonymity is
about to be ruined by the arrival at the base of a pair of old friends,
left-wing political activist Mrs. George Bernard (Charlotte) Shaw (Christine
Rogers) and future memoirist Clare Sydney Smith (Andrea Schulz Twiss), who want
to convince Lawrence to return to Great Britain, each for her own reason.Wood eloquently portrays
Lawrence's anguish at having his privacy violated once again, even by
well-meaning friends.

Christine Rogers gives a pert performance as concerned friend
Charlotte Shaw, who thinks Lawrence would be useful to the political causes that
she embraces; and Andrea Schulz Twiss is a delight as bouncy blonde bombshell
Clare Sydney Smith, whose not-so-secret crush on Lawrence makes him acutely
uncomfortable and his new RAF mates deeply envious.

Adam Twiss, gives two crisp
characterizations.He's avuncular
as American writer and broadcaster Lowell Thomas, who concocted the immensely
popular multimedia presentation "With Lawrence in Arabia" that made
Lawrence a household name; and he's a picture of righteous indignation as
Corporal "Crasher" Dunstone, who hates Lawrence, because he thinks
that Lawrence is a glory hound who took the lion's share of the credit for
winning the Arab Revolt while rank-and-file British soldiers suffered and died
in anonymity.

Shawn Rhodes also acquits himself well as Leading Aircraftman
"Tam" Walden; and Tim Overcash makes a most impressive Theatre In The
Park debut as Arab Revolt leader and Lawrence's old friend Prince Feisal, who
materializes in a series of flashbacks during which Lawrence and Feisal win the
war but lose the peace when the British and the French shamefully renege on
promises they made to their Arab allies.

Director Michael Lilly expertly orchestrates the action of
THE MAN IN THE DESERT, on a magnificently detailed set devised by designer
Stephen J. Larson, whose work here is superlative.Larson not only does an excellent job of assembling the guns, other
military equipment, and props needed for this compelling drama; and costume designer Shawn
Stewart-Larson does an outstanding job with an impressive array of 1930s military and civilian fashions.

THE MAN IN THE DESERT contains memorable characters and
a compelling drama that will no doubt captivate audiences in other
locations where they have a star and supporting cast to match the current production at Raleigh's
Theatre in the Park.

WRAZ
FOX TV:
"In THE MAN IN THE DESERT Peter Colley has crafted a powerful
prescient dramatization of Arabia in the 1930's and its resonance to the
current situation in the region."

RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER REVIEW:

A
light on 'The Man in the Desert'

Roy
C. Dicks, Correspondent

RALEIGH - Playwright Peter Colley's "The Man in the Desert," at
Theatre in the Park, delves into the thwarted dreams and conflicted personality
of T.E. Lawrence and offers much to admire in its view of Lawrence of
Arabia.

Colley sets the play in the early 1930s at a Royal Air Force base in
Iraq.Lawrence is serving there
under an assumed name, hoping to avoid further notoriety over his exploits
leading the Arab revolt against the Turks in 1917.Embittered after learning that the British never intended the promised
Arab independence, he's haunted by visions of Arabian Prince Faisal, whose trust
was betrayed.

Lawrence is soon found out, first by admiring young officer Tam Walden,
then by Crasher Dunstone, the corporal in charge, who accuses Lawrence of
grabbing all the glory of the revolt without crediting the British soldiers who
accomplished it.Complications
emerge with the arrival of close friends Charlotte Shaw (wife of George Bernard)
and Clare Sydney Smith (wife of Lawrence's former commanding officer), there to
convince him that he's needed in England for a political post.Lawrence is forced to face personal demons.

Colley has a fine feel for dramatic confrontation and sparring dialogue,
which make up the play's heart.He
also has an ear for comedy, supplying Lawrence with witty barbs and Walden with
natural humor.The characters have
subtle dimensions; Lawrence's complexities are especially nuanced. And
Colley makes the play relevant through frightening parallels to today's Iraq.

The big moments of the play allow the well-established talents of Ira David Wood III
to register effectively as Lawrence and Shawn Rhodes' Walden is genuinely likable in his youthful fervor.Christine Rogers (Charlotte) and Andrea Schulz Twiss (Clare) enliven
their scenes with sharp characterizations and precise timing, while Adam Twiss (Dunstone)
heats up the drama with brooding anger.

Colley's play reminds us that heroes are human and that history repeats
itself.

LETTERS TO THE THEATRE

"This is an important piece of work. What I liked most were the
contemporary implications of the story. The world will discover this
play." Terry Garren(Terry Garren is
an award winning novelist (The Secret War) whose books on the American Civil War were used by
Charles Frazier in writing Cold Mountain.)

"We loved THE MAN IN THE DESERT and haven't stopped thinking about it
and talking about it. Our friends felt exactly the same way. It has
such resonance for today, it's eerie. Truly wonderful."

"As soon as the show ended I wanted to see it again right away.I wanted to hear all those wonderful words again".Manager, Borders Books.

"I won't be able to think of anything else but this play for days".

"The show was simply amazing. What a total treat!A truly relevant and utterly brilliant piece of history and art all right
here in front of our eyes. Thank you so much your passion."

"I was blown away!!What an
amazing show, with truly stellar and incredible performances! The entire
event was moving and I found the multi-media display to be superb. Many
kudos to you and the entire cast and crew for such a moving, informative,
entertaining, relevant play!"

"There were standing ovations at every performance."
Stage Manager's Report.

"I thoroughly enjoyed THE MAN IN THE DESERT.I was struck by how much the image of the desert resonated throughout the
play. The characters are surrounded by it, penetrated by it, haunted by it...
the desert is a central figure.It is another character. The looming Bedouin on the horizon - I could not
forget them from start to finish. They are both sinister and beloved.Beautiful and dark.I was very interested in Lawrence's visions, his attempt to hide his
identity, his potentially fabricated past and guilt, and his forbidden love with
Clare.I was also deeply drawn to the character of Crasher - he was invigorating
and sympathetic, extremely human (and I was certain I would have hated him).For a character who enters late in the play, he's fleshed out very
believably.Lowell Thomas has some beautiful speeches - particularly his final
monologue."Adriana Bucz, Dramaturg, Tarragon Theatre, Toronto. "This
is a terrific script. The characters are fully drawn and the tension is really
palpable.It's a real page turner full of haunting, beautiful, intensely moving
character interplay and lots of very funny and honest moments.The play weaves a real fabric of immediacy into the theme of doomed
nation building.Amazing and really prescient writing." Mike Lilly,
Director.

"I
spent a fascinating couple of hours reading your new play.I am very impressed.In two
acts you almost encompass the whole basic story (with even a lot of details) of
Lawrence.I envy you... envy you
both the fact that your father actually knew Lawrence.... and envy the talent
that you've shown both in writing the play AND the great article that followed
it."S.F.,Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Lawrence
Scholar).

"I really enjoyed THE MAN IN THE DESERT. T. E. Lawrence is such a
fascinating character. I was so intrigued by this play I went out and
bought a book about Lawrence and read it cover to cover. And there's
Charlotte Shaw (wife of George Bernard Shaw) and that friendship! It's
wonderful material!" Maureen LaBonte, Literary Manager, The
Shaw Festival (one of Canada's largest theatres, with an annual audience of
300,000).

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